This is great. And watching the above trailer, after playing for a good chunk of hours, I'm lead to believe it's real deep.

Have been banging on about it in the currently playing thread.

It's a stripped back Tower defense game, there's a grand total of 3 buttons. The tutorial lasts about 20 seconds and then you're on your own. Randomly generated areas.

As much as I want to punch myself in the fuck for the comparison, there's a touch of the Dark Souls about it. You learn by failing, and the enjoyment and challenge is largely because it doesn't tell you what to do.

With that in mind, I'm gonna spoiler everything from here on out that gets specific.

Some stuff I've sussed, some stuff I think I understand, some stuff I have no idea.

Would love some others diving in and coming up with theories.

Please spoiler stuff that you've worked out though.

Game is on just about everything now, PC, ios, Bone. It's lovely, very relaxing, but also compelling.

And now to specifics.

First things first, I nearly don't want to spoiler this, but it's kinda worth working out yourself. (Yes, you can fuck up enough to need to restart pretty quick)

Spoiler:

First section, baddies only come from one direction. I thought it was only from left, but it is random. Once you know, you can safely focus all your resources to defense in one direction and do all farming and money generation stuff the other side.

Interaction:

Spoiler:

You can basically only run around and give coin to stuff. There's icons above everything you can spend money on. And it shows how many coins it costs. (I've only found one thing you can interact with that doesn't have those icons, and I think I've found a second, but haven't worked out how to interact with it yet.)

The stuff that's on the map when you explore:

Spoiler:

I'm early days, but in the first 2 sections, there's always:
A camp where the caravan trader goes to.
X amount of camps where you can get new followers/citizens.
1 shipwreck
X amount of treasure chests.
1 statue of an archer.
And a little statue/building/artifact that allows you to build with stone and fully expand.
Sometimes a sign, which appears to open up more of the map.

More specifics on what some of the above does:

Spoiler:

In the second section (and first section once you unlock them, there's also sometimes horses. White horses have more stamina, there's black horses, haven't nabbed one yet. Brown Horses can totally be worse than your starting horse.

Archer statue: (It powers up archers. not sure on exactly how it works, but you can light it up 3 times, not sure if that gives you more power or more time or both.) More power, more time, more accuracy. Allows for better hunting, and appears to upgrade your archers created when it's active. Basically, if it's close to camp, keep it lit and hunting is a viable income stream.

All of this is randomly spread.

Progression:

Spoiler:

To get to new sections, you need to rebuild the shipwreck as fast as possible and sail it out of the area. The tension in the game is borne of having to defend against the baddies who come each night (costs coin) vs building the ship as fast as possible during the day, without your building guys having their hammers stolen (all costs coin.) There's more, but that's the basic premise.

Further discoveries:

Spoiler:

Just found a statue that costs 8 coin that powers up builders. Interesting. haven't been able to use yet.
you can destroy small portals where baddies come from, and then use them to see further into map.
Third section has enemies going agro if you destroy a portal though, and it also has 2 portals, at least my current run does.

Revenue streams:

Spoiler:

Caravan: hangs out for a long time in first section, goes quicker in second section, and gives you one run in third.
Hunting: See above re archer statue, but the more clear area you have, the more archers you have, the more money you get from killing animals.
Farming: streams cost 3 to get ready for basic farm. 4 to create scythes for farmers. If it's outside castle walls, don't build a house on it necessarily (8 coins) unless you in first section, as you can do it on the safe side. 2 farmers per farming area. Good money.
Builders: Money for cutting trees, other than that, they repair and build everything, the more you have the more/quicker you can do everything.
Banker: Once you build proper building in camp you can give him money for safe keeping and for interest. Haven't worked out the precise %. He always hides in the castle during the night.

General stylies, flaws, foibles:

Spoiler:

You can't undo stuff, or destroy stuff you build, it either gets expanded or not.
Better walls etc can be repaired. Automatically, if not completely destroyed. For cheaper than building a new one, if totally destroyed.

Building farm houses for 8 coin means the farmers do more farming and i think bring in more cash, BUT of they're not behind a wall, then they are vulnerable over night because they stay at the farm house. Safer to spend less on setting up farm and living with them returning to camp each night.

Yep, he's the bank. Not sure on exact % but if other revenue streams are going badly, he's handy, especially if farming and hunting have died off. (In second land if you you've continued straight on, then caravan only stays one night)

Spoiler:

If you really pump him with cash, he'll actually deal out a little for a few days in a row. I think. because he locks himself up, it's also handy if things go really badly overnight, as long as you don't lose your crown, you can be sure you don't lose coin to baddies.